









































































































ZCbe (Srowtb anb ITnfluence 
of Hmerican Xibert^. 


ib AN ADDRESS \|if 




J Delivered, before the Stamina Republican League at Cincinnati, O,, 
S November 23, 1903, by 


Will Cumback, of Greensburg, Indiana. 
















^be (Growth anb ITnfluencc 
of Hmerican Xiberti?. 


(1/ >1/ AN ADDRESS vJ) ii/ 


Delivered before the Stamina Republican League at Cincinnati, O,, 

November 28, 1903, by 
Will Cumback, of Creensburg, Indiana. 


Published at the unanimous request of the League. 








THE GROWTH AND INFLUENCE OF 
AMERICAN LIBERTY. 


Mr. President and Genteemen of 
THE Stamina Republican League : 

The new century inherited a great estate from its predecessor. It 
is made rich by the unparalleled progress in every department of human 
affairs, and the wider dissemination of knowledge. Countless inventions 
and discoveries have lightened the burden of toil, and made welcome addi¬ 
tions to the comforts and joys of living. 

To even mention all these without comment would be tedious and 
beyond the limits of the time allotted. Well may we boast of what has 
been accomplished and take pride in what has come to us. They are all a 
promise and a prophecy of greater things to come in the near future. Our 
hope and our faith is, that the present light will be dim and shadowy 
when compared with the brilliant glow that will come in the next hundred 
years. It makes us cling closer to life, and intensifies our desire to live 
longer that we may see more and more of the triumphs of human genius 
and energy that manifestly are sure to come. 

But the greatest result, and about which we boast the least, is, that 
the individual man, with all the significance of human existence, is coming 
to be recognized. But for this our boasting would be in vain. Man must 
be the focal point for all this modern light, or it is no better than darkness. 

One of our poets has written : 

‘ ‘What care I for cast or creedV 
It is the deed: it is the deed. 

What for class or what for clan? 

It is the man: it is the man. 

Heirs of love and joy and woe, 

Who is high, and who is low? 

Mountain, valley, sky and sea. 

Are all for humanity. 

“What care I for robe or stole? 

It is the soul, it is the soul. 

What for crown or what for crest? 

It is the heart within the breast. 

It is the faith, it is the hope. 

It is the struggle up the slope, 

It is the brain and heart to see 
One God and one humanity. ’ ’ 

We are compelled to admit that the moral, mental, social and 
spiritual development of the human race has not kept pace with the 
material progress. The cornmon man is far in the rear of the stupendous 
visible apparatus of civilization. The increase of wealth ought always to 






to the stock of human happiness; and it wonld, if it were attended, 
J and if it brought to its possessor integrity, intelligence and generosity, 
i Avarice, meanness, ignorance, dishonesty and oppression are too often the 
mangy curs that go along with riches. So that we have the ludicrous 
, spectacle of one-story men living in four-story houses. The history of the 
^ race reveals the painful fact that the common man has been the victim of 
greed and oppression of other men, who have asserted and maintained the 
preposterous claim that they had the right to rule him and compel his 
service. 

They have denied him the blessings of education, surrounding him 
with the fogs of superstition, cunningly instilling into his darkened under¬ 
standing mysterious creeds and dogmas, the purposes of which were to 
strengthen their right to rule and control him. They have taxed the very 
sw’eat of his brow, and stolen his hard earned wages under the false pre¬ 
tenses thus created. 

They have marched him off to the field of blood and carnage and 
death, to fight for something in which he had no interest to gratify the 
greed or ambition of his oppressor. 

They have made him believe that they rule by divine right and 
terrorized his ignorant and benighted soul with the collossal falsehood that 
to resist them was to fight God. That submission to the oppressor was the 
way to escape the penalty of the oppressor’s law in this life, and ever¬ 
lasting punishment in the life to come. This was the condition of the 
human race for centuries. The world was a vast desert of oppression, with 
here and there a green spot—an oasis ®f partial freedom. If any man 
claimed to assert his manhood—made the bold pretense to own himself—to 
think for himself, and dared to utter his dissent to the existing order of 
things the rack, or the gibbet, or the fagot became his portion. He has 
been compelled to accept somebody’s creed, and worship the kind of God 
that another had created for him, and pay heavily for the privilege. He 
was not consulted as to the amount of taxes he should pay ; and when his 
monev was taken from him, he had no voice in its expenditure. In short 
he was a serf and a slave, without hope for himself or his children. And 
this is the deplorable condition of the great mass of the human race to-day. 
If the colors on the map of the world were selected to exhibit the exact 
status of humanity, the blackness of injustice, cruelty and oppression would 
give painful uniformity to the picture. 

The heart of the sincere philanthropist sickens as he beholds it, and 
the soul of the true Christian is moved to more earnest prayer for more 
than finite power, that he may be more effectual in dispelling the clouds of 
ignorance and superstition that surround his fellow-men, that he might lift 
up his down-trodden brother and cause him to see, and know, his own 
worth as a man. 

But the picture is not all dark. It was lightened a few centuries ago 
when some bold spirits believed it better to come to this new land in¬ 
habited by barbarians than longer live under the oppression of their native 


land. Along our eastern coast line they lit the fires of human liberty, be¬ 
hind was the dark back ground of barbarism. But year by year the fire 
grew brighter and drove back the darkness. The savages of the forest 
tried to extinguish it and failed. The flame grew brighter and more ex¬ 
tended. Then Great Britian with her mighty armies and powerful navies 
came to re-enforce the savage. But the time had fully come for man to 
govern himself, and England had to flee across the Atlantic beaten and dis¬ 
graced. 

The declaration cf that self-evident truth that all men are created 
equal, and endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, so 
strengthened the arms and stimulated the hearts of the men of 1776, that 
they could not be conquered. The immortal words of Patrick Henry, 
“Give us liberty or give us death,” expresses the stern purpose of every 
loyal American. “Thrice is he armed who hath his quarrel just” was ver¬ 
ified by the men who followed Washington in that great struggle for their 
own rights and that of their children. Yea, more incomparably more. 
They were unconsciously fighting the battles for oppressed humanity for all 
time to come. Their victory meant the overthrow of monarchy some time 
in the future wherever civilization had a sufficient foot-hold ; their defeat, 
the almost hopeless continuation of despotism. 

It was the grand initial movement for the redemption and elevation 
of man. Their swords were drawn, not to widen the area of imperial power, 
not for the mere glory of conquest, but to maintain the right to govern 
themselves without the intervention of a foreign king, and in resistance to 
the power of parliament to tax them without representation. 

The contest was long, and often the result seemed doubtful. But it 
was a propitious time for the feeble colonies. If their opposers had had the 
benefit of a submarine telegraph to daily tell the tale of their poverty and 
expose their times of weakness and depression, and in addition, had the aid 
of the swift steamships of the present time, they might have struck a blow 
that would have postponed the victory for a century. Had George HI not 
been an imbecile, sometimes sane and sometimes crazy, there might have 
been concessions made, and compromises offered, as to have saved England 
the disgrace of entire defeat, and tonight, instead of chanting the praise of 
George Washington and his fellow patriots, we might be joining the Cana¬ 
dians in singing “God save the King.” 

At the end of the great struggle the colonists were over-burdened 
with debt, and distracted with divisions as to the kinds of government they 
would adopt, and for a time it seemed very doubtful notwithstanding the 
blood and treasure that had been expended, whether a free government could 
be established, whether the temple of liberty for which they had sacrificed 
so much could be continued. But the patriotic self sacrifice which had 
made the Revolution a success, controlled the men of the times, and the 
foundations of a free government were laid. 

The experiment to establish a permanent union of the States was 
found to be a failure. The Articles of Confederation was a mere rope of 


sand. There was no national life or power in it. But the men of’76 knew 
what they wanted. They called a convention of the representatives of the 
people. The weakness of their first attempt was a guide to better things. 
In that convention they formed our coustitution, aud declared their purpose 
in the preamble. “We, the people of the United States, in order to form a 
more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide 
for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the bless¬ 
ings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this 
Constitution for the United States of America.” 

This tells the story. It is for the purpose set forth in the preamble 
that they had pledged their “lives and sacred honor” in the Declaration of 
Independence. Tlie Constitution, as it says, was the creation of the people 
and not of the States. It was made as Lincohi said, for “A government of 
the people, by the people, and for the people.” 

Until it was adopted there was no perfect union, no assurance of do¬ 
mestic tranquility, no power to provide for the common d efene, or promote 
the general welfare and as a sequence the blessings of liberty to themselves 
and their posterity could not be assured. The Constitution secured it all. 
It gave them all they had fought for. In it were garnered the precious 
treasures of the victorious battle fields of the revolution and was a fitting 
climax of this great struggle for human rights. Uiberty was now a fixed 
fact. It had existed in the hearts of the Pilgrim Fathers and had grown 
and developed ever since their landing on the shores of the Atlantic. It had 
nerved them in the great and memorable contest of the Revolution. It had 
given them the victory. And now that the temple of civil and religious 
liberty was builded on the solid rock of the Constitution, they realized a 
sense of safety and security. 

The United States became a nation, and took her place as a distinct 
and separate government. She had the admiration and sympathy of the op¬ 
pressed everywhere, and the jeers and scorn of their oppressors. That she 
was promptly recognized as a nation by the monarchies of the old world, 
was not because of their love for a free people, but rather of their hatred of 
their old enemy who had been defeated by the brave men of the Revolution. 
While the other nations were settling their quarrels, our young nation had 
time for the wounds of the Revolution to heal, and the dissentions growing 
out of the adoption of the Constitution to disappear, and the United States 
began to be so rugged and strong as to compel the respect of other powers. 

The rapid increase in wealth and population, and the adjustment of 
the national debt under the able management of the greatest of financiers, 
Alexander Hamilton, gave new hope and vigor to the national life. What 
there was of the new nation had been created by these hardy pioneers. 
There was no overthrown dynasty to breed dissention. No barons or lords 
had been displaced. No old families with imaginary blue blood in their 
veins to point the finger of scorn at the common man. They commenced 
their life in this new land on the same equal footing, equal in poverty, equal 
in courage and hope, animated with the same purpose, bound together with 


the common sympathy produced by encountering like difficulties, and re¬ 
quiring vSimilar sacrifices. Among them were no castes. The only aris¬ 
tocracy was that of personal merit. 

Their education, experience and environments, produced the highest 
type of manhood, and the very best material to make the experiment of 
self-government. And in addition they were of that noble race, that will 
doubtless give language, literature and legislation, to the civilized world 
—the peerless Anglo Saxon. 

Where in all the history of the races of men can be found another 
than our race, who would have had the courage, patience and endurance 
to have fought on for years until they had the victory. Where can another 
be found who would have had the clear conception of what was involved in 
the great contest? What other would have had the virtue and intelligence 
to meet and master all the conflicting interests and create such a constitu¬ 
tion and establish such a government? 

So it appears that the experiment of self-government w^as commenced 
at the right time and place and by the only race that could have succeeded. 
And it is a success. All the prophets of evil have been confounded. And 
as its influence widens and deepens as the years come and go, it will be re¬ 
corded by all faithful historians as the ushering in of a new civilization. 

That our fathers had their doubts and fears we are well assured. 
Absolute toleration in religion, universal suffrage, committing all power to 
the governed, and the entire separation of church and state, were new and 
radical experiments and could but fill the souls of the wisest and best with 
serious apprehension. There was no assuring precedent of safety. But 
knowing their purposes \vere right, and having faith in God, and hope for 
humanity, they made the venture. 

We know now that they “bnilded wiser than they knew.” Could 
they have lifted the veil, and peered into the future, and have seen the suc¬ 
cess of their experiment, they might have had a fuller and broader concep¬ 
tion of what they had done. A great English writer in speaking of the 
men who formed our constitution said “they were wiser than Justinian, 
who came before them, or Napoleon who came after them.” 

It is a document that can be read in thirty minutes, yet it makes 
provision for the administrative, legislative and judicial departments of the 
government, and fixes the boundaries clearly and definitely. It provides 
for the regulation of commerce both foreign and domestic. It makes pro¬ 
vision for, and regulates the currency of the nation. It provides for copy¬ 
right and patents and regulates taxation to meet all the expenses of all 
these depaitments, including the army and the navy. It defines what the 
general government may do, and what rights are reserved exclusively to 
the several states. It guards with jealous care the primordial rights of the 
humblest citizen, and leaves all sovereign power in the hands of the people. 
It is short, clear and concise. 

As it required concessions and compromises to secure its adoption, 
the changed conditions, and the larger and wider conception of human 


rights made it necessary to add amendments to broaden its scope to better 
meet the new order of things. 

The adoption of the Constitution and the organization of the colonies 
into a national government, fixes the date of onr national birth, yet Ameri¬ 
can liberty existed before that period. It may be truly asserted that Amer¬ 
ican liberty was born when the Pilgrim fathers landed on the barren shores 
of New England. 

The constitution is the child of liberty and not the parent. And yet 
as the centuries come and go in the future, the great event of the organiza¬ 
tion of the government and its subsequent influence on the other nations of 
the earth, and its great power in the elevation of man, will shine with such 
increasing lustre and brightness that the smaller events leading to that 
j)oint, will have less and less significance, and in a century hence the adop¬ 
tion of the constitution will doubtless be regarded as the date of the birth of 
American liberty. 

It required one hundred and fifty years to thoroughly prepare the 
Puritan for the great work of self-government. He was brave and loved 
liberty more than life, yet his conception of human rights was narrow. 
Strange to say, he was often intolerant, and in religion was afflicted with 
bigotry. As our own great historian, Ridpath, says, “Dissenters them¬ 
selves they could not tolerate dissent in others. The horrid persecution of 
the Quakers in Massachusetts, the expulsion of Roger Williams and the 
Salem witchcraft are some of the fruits of their superstition. They all de¬ 
clare the fact that they were only in the primary department of the school 
of human liberty. But the constant assault on their homes and lives by 
the savage barbarian behind them, and the repeated attack on their rights 
by the Parliament of the mother country before them, were the purifying 
fires that brought forth the fine gold of a broader and deeper conception of 
civil and religious liberty. 

A common danger produced a common faith in God and humanity. 
As the only ineterst the British government had in the colonies was to de¬ 
vise means to rob them, it constantly developed among the Puritans the 
ability of self preservation, and created a desire for a closer and a stronger 
union. These momentous questions not only crowded out intolerance and 
bigotry, but it educated them in the science of self-government, and equip¬ 
ped them thoroughly for the great declaration they proclaimed in 1776. It 
is a fearful commentary on the degrading effect of despotism on the race, 
that it thus required the dreadful scourges of want and war through several 
generations to bring our fathers to a full appreciation of their own manhood 
and to enable them to have a better and more complete conception of their 
individual rights. 

This is the faithful and truthful testimony of the historian. When 
we seriously consider it, such conclusions add incomparably to the value, as 
well as to the cost of human liberty. It is well that we should do so. It 
fans into a brighter flame the fires of our patriotic zeal, and creates a newer, 
deeper and more self-sacrificing devotion to our country’s best welfare. It 


re-enforces our courage to stand for the right and resist the wrong. It fills 
the soul of the true American with the uplifting ambition to be a worthy 
recipient of this inestimable boon, and strengthens his heart with the 
heroic purpose to battle to the death against any force that threatens the 
perpetuity of our free institutions. Having made this rapid and onlv par¬ 
tial statement of the growth of liberty in the colonial times, down to and 
including the formation of the Constitution, we may now take into con¬ 
sideration the advancement made since that time. 

The cupidity of the British slave trade had fastened on some of the 
colonists the curse of humau bondage. This great evil had to be recognized 
in order to form a union of all the states and secure the adoption of the Con¬ 
stitution. It is due to the liberty-loving masses of those times to say, that 
they greatly deplored the necessity. Thomas Jefferson, that great apostle 
of iuiinan liberty, said, when speaking of slavery, that he trembled when 
he remembered that God was just, and some time the alarm would come 
like a fire-bell in the night. The institution of slavery was not defended. 
It was simply tolerated as one of the evils that the avarice of England had 
fastened on the colonies. Its incongruity in a free government was nniver- 
saliy conceded. It was expected in some way, that the prevailing sentiment 
against it would cause it to be short lived. 

And no doubt but their hopes would have been realized, and the 
great civil war would have had no place in our history, had not Kli Whitney 
invented the cotton gin. The date of the invention was 1792, and in that 
year our export of cotton w^as less than two hundred thousand pounds. 
The use of the cotton gin so increased the production that in 1803, eleven 
years later, our export was forty-one million pounds. This greatly in¬ 
creased the value of slave labor. Fortunes were rapidly made out of the 
sweat and toil of the unpaid barbarian imported from Africa. Greed and 
gain paralyzed the conscience of the participants of the profits of slave 
labor. The [mercenary spirit overpowered the moral sense, and corrupted 
the religion and politics of the nation. Statesmen came forward as the de¬ 
fenders of slavery, and even the Doctors of Divinity claimed to find that the 
bible taught that slavery was a Divine institution. 

No discussion of the right of one man to own another man, and sell 
him as property, was permitted in the slave states. The pulpit and the 
press were muzzled so that the domination of the slaveholder was complete 
wherever slavery existed—enslaving both the black and the white man who 
opposed the wrong. Not content with mere local control, it claimed to 
dictate the policy of the government. It selected presidents and cabinets, 
and nominated and confirmed only such members of the supreme court as 
would do its bidding. It had complete control of the patronage of the na¬ 
tion, and none but the worshipers at the shrine of human bondage could 
have the honors or participate in the emoluments of office. 

The offensive aggressiveness of slavery produced a constant agitation 
and a stubborn and determined resistance to its extraordinary demands. It 
went even to the great length of threatening the dissolution of the union of 


the states unless the curse was made national by allowing the slave holder 
to hold his slave in any state or territory in the nation. And finally, as 
Thomas Jefferson had prophesied, the firing on Ft. Sumpter, in i86i, came 
‘dike a fire bell in the night;” and the great Civil War was the result. Men 
by the million rushed around the national flag. The stain of human bond, 
age was washed out with the patriotic blood of men who loved liberty more 
than life. 

The mistake of our fathers was corrected. With peace came the right 
of the black mati to own himself, and the white man to discuss unmolested 
any subject he chose. As the smoke of the conflict cleared away, the black 
cloud of oppression went with it, and the bright light of universal freedom 
was the rich heritage of the great struggle. Yea, more and better still. 
The false construction of the Constitution, robbing the national government 
of the supreme power that the organic law had invested it with, and giving 
that authority to the states in order to perpetuate slavery and justify seces¬ 
sion, falsely called State rights, ceased with the death of slavery. It gave 
assurance for all time to come, of the right, as well as the power, and abiliity 
to preserve and perpetuate the national life. 

The upholders of monarchy and the prophets of evil had proclaimed 
that our form of government would be disintegrated and destroyed by a 
civil war—that it was too weak to stand the test of rebellion. This 
prophesy was begotten of their hopes. Our existence was a perpetual 
menace to despotism. Our success in this great struggle convinced the 
world of the solidity and stability of a government in the hands of the 
governed. 

The removal of the cause of constant sectional strife, and the restor¬ 
ation of the supremacy of the constitution, and the destruction of the mis¬ 
named doctrine of State rights insured the unification of the States and we 
became again a Nation with a permanent and solid Union. It settled the 
question for all time to come that American patriotism would not tolerate 
rebellion against our national authority. It gave assurance that no more 
civil wars will come in the future to divide and distract the American 
people. 

The great victory has brought these inestimable blessings to our be¬ 
loved country. To the world It has shown that majestic power is safer in 
the hands of the governed ; that a republic is not only the best for the 
masses, but it has more elements of strength and permanency than 
a—monarchy. 

So that from April i86i, to the victory in 1865—four long, anxious 
years, the Union soldier was not only fighting the great battle to preserve 
the Union of the States, and maintain the supremacy of the Constitution 
and the sovereignty of the Nation, but he was engaged in a conflict in 
which was involved the liberty af the human race for all time to come. 

The surrender at Appomattox was the commencement of the down¬ 
fall of despotism everywhere. To prove this let us recall some of the 
events that have come to pass with other nations since that time. In the 


darkest days of our struggle, when the chances of success seemed most 
doubtful, the Emperor of France sent an army to Mexieo, and placed 
Maximilian on the throne of that distracted country, and held him there 
with French bayonets. His purpose doubtless was to be ready to gather in 
and add to his Mexican empire, some of the broken fragments, when 
secession became a success. But our victory compelled Napoleon to order, 
in great haste his army back to France. His usurping Emperor was tried, 
convicted and executed for his crime against the rights of man, and Mexico 
became a republic. Her people have wisely chosen that greatest of modern 
statesmen. President Diaz, and now peace and prosperity have come to the 
Mexicans. No longer the bloody waves of revolution hinder the growth 
and development of Mexico. The Mexican Republic is the legitimate se¬ 
quence of our ability to preserve our own. 

The declaration of American independence fired the soul of the op¬ 
pressed people of France and hastened the French revolution, which was 
the beginning of the overthrow of monarchical rule in France, and of the 
recognition of the common man. 

The maintenance of the Union and the abolition of slavery relit the 
fires of liberty of the French republicans. They drove Napoleon from 
France and established a republic which has grown stronger every day in 
the affectionate support of the French people. Had we failed it is not to be 
believed that France would have had faith in the permanency of a republic. 
Put another star in the crown of the American soldier. 

It is not an unwarranted conclusion that Don Pedro would not have 
been driven from the throne of Brazil, had the United States been unable to 
enforce her own laws and maintain the Union of the States. The mani¬ 
fested strength of our government in war as in peace doubtless led the 
Brazilians to choose a republic and discard a monarchy. 

The very breezes from our own happy land had filled the souls of 
our Cuban neighbors with a burning and irresistible desire to throw off the 
yoke of despotism, and excited a manly and determined resistance to the 
exactions of a despot on the other side of the world. It is not a matter of 
wonder that there was a constant rebellion against Spain. The barbaric 
cruelty of the Spaniards became intolerable and shocked the civilized world, 
and especially excited the sympathy of the American people. Our govern¬ 
ment demanded that Spain withdraw her armies Irom Cuba, and give her 
freedom. Spain defiantly refused and declared war as the answer, and on 
the call of the President, seven hundred thousand liberty loving Americans 
at once offered their services to enforce the demand. Spain, was severely 
chastised and gave us Porto Rico and the Philippine Islands to secure 
peace, and Cuba the youngest of the family of new Republics is enjoying 
all the blessings of self-government. 

Had the war for the Union been a failure and secession a success, we 
would have been bankrupt, at war with the seceded States, without either 
army or navy to drive despotism to the other side of the world. Let more 
and brighter stars be added to the crown of the Union soldier. His fidelity 


to his country in the day of trial is constantly widening the area of freedom. 

The beautiful Hawaiian Islands have abandoned monarchy and 
idolatry, and accepted American civilization. This important half-way 
station to the Philippines floats the stars and stripes and is ours. It is sup¬ 
posed that they would have sought our protection if we had shown our in¬ 
capacity to preserve the integrity of the Union. The out-going' influences 
of the United States since the Civil war quickens and re-enforces the high¬ 
est and best aspirations of humanity. Are we not warranted in the belief 
that before the close of the present century this potent force will remove 
many more crowns from the heads of despots and place them as curios in 
the museums of liberated and self governing nations, whose thrones will 
only be found in the debris with the shackles of slavery, mid the ashes and 
fagots of intolerance and persecution? Many more millions of the oppressed 
of the race will stand erect, invested with every natural right, breathing 
the free air of freedom in their own native land. 

There is no power able to arrest the progress of this essential ex¬ 
pansion and imperialism—the expansion of human liberty and the imperial¬ 
ism of the common man. Who will be found in the coming future bold 
enough to uphold that old and disreputable dogma—the divine right of 
kings—a slander on the very source of equal aud impartial justice, and the 
enemy of unalienable rights of man? 

We will leave the question with the ethical philosophers whether 
the masses are reuching a higher plane of moral conception, and practices, 
and spiritual development. But that they are rapidly coming to know 
their political rights cannot be doubted. The constant demands on the rul¬ 
ing powers for, and the reluctant concession of, kingly prerogatives to pla¬ 
cate their subjects, and thus prevent revolution is most conclusive proof. 
Recently the Czar of Russia, yielding to the discontent and demands of the 
people, has granted rights and privileges hitherto denied, and the recent 
visit of King Edward to Ireland, and the Irish land bill, are the latest evi¬ 
dence that the voice of the common man is reaching the ear of authority. 

Before our civil war our influence for the elevation of man was par¬ 
alyzed. Our appeal for the enlargement of human rights was futile, while 
we upheld human bondage, and bought and sold men, women and children 
as property, but having abolished this incubus to our national life and mor¬ 
al strength, the new century fiuds us first among the nations of the 
earth in physical strength and civic excellence. 

Fighting the battles for the Cubans, without taking possession of 
the tempting island, to promote human liberty, is without parallel in the 
history of nations. The suppression of the rebellion convinced the world 
that we had an invincible army, and the Spanish war, an unconquerable 
navy, and our treatment of Cuba, that we are as generous as we are brave* 

More than fifty years ago the intelligent and patriotic citizens of the 
Vepublic, seeing the time serving and truckling to the slaveocracy with the 
intolerable domination of public affairs by the existing political parties, de¬ 
termined to submit no longer. Our great historian, George Bancroft, says, 


“Truth raises itself in manifest serenity above the strifes of parties; it 
acknowledges neither the solitary mind or the separate factor as its oracle ; 
but owns as its only faithful interpreter the dictates of pure reason, pro¬ 
claimed by the general voice of mankind.” 

The people collectively are wiser than the most gifted individual, 
for all his wisdom constitutes but a part of theirs. In a recent interview 
Tolstoi, the great Russian philosopher and philanthropist and friend of the 
common man, said, “The masses, as I see them, are out for truth, pro¬ 
gress, knowledge, derivtng their information from life direct, and I tell 
you. life is a better teacher than the whole output of books ever conceived 
by genius or plodding mind. 

With us the soiuces of civic information are so abundant and access¬ 
ible to the citizen, no danger can come to the State which cannot be avert¬ 
ed by his intelligence, and innate sense of justice and fair play. The 
statesman who keeps his ear open to the voices which come from the homes 
of the people, from the farm, the workshop, and the busy marts Oi trade, is 
the best equiped to serve his constituency, and promote the public welfare. 
“Vox Populi, Vox Die” is not simply a euphoneous phrase, and meaning¬ 
less maxim. It contains a great fundamental fact. The cottages of the 
common man are congenial abiding places for Divinity. In the struggles 
of his life, human needs suggests, and human love commands, a 
betterment of human conditions. All real reforms must come 
from the common people Wrongs, long suffered, will be met with 
the best, and most effective remedies from the collective experience 
and wisdom of the masses. The time and mode of applying the remedy 
must be fixed by them. Without their united and hearty approval it will 
be a failure. Political parties to accomplish results must come from the 
needs and demands of the people themselves. Those created by scheming 
politicians will not attract the masses, although they assume the name of 
Democracy, or Socialist, or Populist. 

However intense may be the opposition to intemperance, and the de¬ 
plorable evils attending it, and the earnest desire of every lover of his race 
to suppress the traffic in ardent spirits, no Prohibition party can succeed 
until the public mind has declared itself ready to try that remedy. The 
universal diffusion of intelligence will not allow a political party to live and 
have control of public affairs, merely on its antiquity, its high sounding 
name or its past achievements. These only control the ignorant and par¬ 
tisan minority. The majority are practical, and for “the survival of the 
fittest” only. At the great crisis in our history they demanded a party to 
resist the domination of a pro-slavery oligarchy which was controling the 
legislation of the country for the promotion of their own interests, and per¬ 
verting the object and purpose of our free institutions, by violating the 
spirit as well as the letter of the constitution. They organized the Repub¬ 
lican party. It was not a creation of political schemers seeking an issue to 
carry an election. It was not organized of men disappointed in their fail¬ 
ure to receive recognition in the parties to which they had belonged. It 


was not begotten in lust for power and patronage. It came from the 
awakened conscience of the nation, and is the legitimate heir of the only 
sovereign we recognize—the common people. Its slogan has ever been the 
clear and comprehensive statement of Abraham Lincoln, “A government 
of the people, by the people and for the people.’’ 

At the mention of the name of Lincoln, patriotism, philanthropy, 
integrity, courage, charity and every other good angel lays a fresh flower 
on his tomb. After a thorough organization of the Republicans the sense¬ 
less prejudice against an anti-slavery party had cleared away by the 
educational campaign of 1856, the people in spite of the politicians nom¬ 
inated him as their leader and in i860 placed him at the helm of State. In 
the storm of the great civil war that followed he took the people into his 
confidence and looked more to them for help than great statesmanship in 
Congress or great generals 011 the field of battle. 

The Republican party was united to a man in sustaining the Presi¬ 
dent, and in suppressing the rebellion against the national authority. 
Countless patriotic men from other political organizations, men who loved 
country more than party, stood with the Republicans and the President, and 
gave their lives on the field of battle. But let it not be forgotten that the 
Republican party was the only party, as a party, which voiced the patriotic 
sentiment of the people and declared for the Union and denounced seces¬ 
sion. In this crisis, had the Republicans faltered in courage and unity, 
the flag of the Union would have gone down in defeat and dishonor and 
despotism and slavery would have rioted over the prostrate form of human 
liberty. The nation will not forget while basking in the sunlight of our 
present glory and prosperity the source from whence they came. 

The Republican party will have the confidence and support of the 
people so long as the party makes the promotion of the public welfare its 
supreme purpose. Close and thorough organization of the party is essen¬ 
tial to its success and to the welfare of the country, and eannot be too 
strongly commended. Machine politics for the sole purpose of securing 
position and patronage to the members of the machine cannot be too 
strongly condemned. The people are jealous of their rights. They will 
not suffer political rings and snap-conventions to have control. They will 
not delegate their power to choose their public servants to scheming and 
selfish politicians. 

The honest masses will not long sustain their party, unless they are 
recognized as its controling factor. When left to themselves they are not 
often mistaken in their estimate of men. At the primary they will choose 
the men who will best conserve the public interest. The ludicrous 
spectacle of small men in great positions, is generally the result of 
machine manipulation. This is the only visible danger now threatening 
the perpetuity of the Republican party. 

The well known and familiar history of the party discloses its 
fidelity to the best interests of the nation. After preserving the Union of 
the States, restoring the national authority and abolishing slavery, it 


opened the public lands, and gave a homestead to the actual settler without 
money and without price. For this, the people had clamored in vain for 
years. The slave power foresaw that such a policy would rapidly increase 
the number of free States and forbade it. The other political parties then 
in control, always subservient to the demands of the slaveholder, yielded to 
the demand of their master. 

The congested populations of our towns and cities went westward to 
our fertile plains and beautiful valleys, and following them soon came the 
railroad, the telegraph, the telephone, the church, the school house and all 
the attendants of civilized society. State after State, built up and organ¬ 
ized by these brave, sturdy and intelligent pioneers, many of whom had 
been soldiers for the Union in the civil war, came in and took their place 
in the family of States, with a newer zeal and a broader conception of 
human rights. It seems fit and proper that the party which preserved the 
Union and abolished slavery, should make the Homestead law the first star 
in its crown of beneficent legislation for a free and redeemed people. 

Let me call your attention to another great evil which was promptly 
corrected when the power was placed in the hands of the Republicans. 
The paper currency was issued by all manner of banks and with the most 
of them there was no security to the holder of their bills. The issues of 
the best of them were at a discount when distant from the place of issue, 
and the bills of the most of them became worthless in the hands of the un¬ 
fortunate holders. It was a system in the main of legalized robbery. All 
that was swept away, and a currency issued for which the Government be¬ 
came the guarantor for every dollar issued. The money given the country 
by the Republicans goes without discount everywhere not only in this 
country, but is par the world over wherever civilization has gone. The 
heartless dealers in depreciated bank notes, and the publishers of the daily 
detectors of their varying values, were industries that ceased to exist, and 
disappeared with the wretched system that made them a participant in 
human affairs. The free trade theories of the South had broken down the 
manufacturing interests of the Nation, and the United States were becom¬ 
ing poorer, and England, Germany and the other manufacturing nations 
were becoming richer by selling their goods in our own market at their 
own price. 

The protective tariff of the Republicans removed this great wrong to 
the people and the government, and under its wise provisions, goods of all 
kinds, of our own manufacture, equal in quality, have become cheaper, liv¬ 
ing wages are paid to our own workingmen, and we have become one of the 
great manufacturing nations. Our goods may be found in every port, and 
our flag in every harbor, while the world is looking on with admiration and 
astonishment at the wonderful progress and rapid accumulation of wealth 
of the United States of America. The national debt had added up to the 
billions, to faint hearts it was appalling. The Republicans would listen to 
no scheme of even partial repudiation, but proclaimed that it must be 
honestly paid dollar for dollar. They would not assent to the cheapening 


of the currency, by the specious project of the free and unlimited coinage 
of silver. Our revenue system has reduced the great national debt to where 
it is no longer a matter of concern, while at the same time we have paid 
hundreds of millions in pensions to the brave men and their survivors who 
saved the Union. 

Our national credit is without a peer in the world of finance. Our 
two per cent, bonds command eight per cent, premium in the money mar¬ 
kets of the world. To the borrower of money, the rate of interest has been 
reduced one half as the result of Republican legislation. No more need be 
.said to establish tlic deep interest of the Republican part}^ in the welfare of 
the comman man. Herein is its strength. It will be unconquerable in the 
future, as in the past, if it continues to make the public welfare its supreme 
aim and purpose. As a nation we have become so great and powerful that 
no other power,dare offend us. Our progress, prosperity and peace is the 
triumph of the policies, principles, and patriotism of the Republican party. 

Its policy brings forward the highest type of citizenship in times of 
peace, and the bravest soldiery in war, and thus continually commends our 
free institutions and human liberty to the other nations. 

Let the sentiment of one of our best poets be ours: 

“Is this the land our fathers loved, 

The freedom which they fought to win? 

Is this the soil they trod upon? 

Are these the graves they slumber in? 

Are we their sons by whom have borne 
The mantels which the dead have worn? 

And shall we crouch above their graves 
With craven soul and fettered lip 
Yoked in with marked and branded slaves 
And tremble at a master’s whip? 

By their enlarging souls, which burst 
The bands and fetters round them set 
By the free pilgrim spirit nursed 
Within our utmost bosoms yet. 

By all around, above, below. 

The hours the eternal answer! No!’’ 


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